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RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct. 1, 2004) — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission takes safety seriously — and is now taking safety to you. A mobile hunting and boating safety exhibit has begun making the rounds of fairs, festivals, scout meetings and school events. The 12-foot trailer can be set up in 15 minutes — including a BB target range to help teach the safe handling of firearms. “We’re asked dozens of times each year to put on a program for various events and groups,” said Wildlife Enforcement Lt. Danny Smith, who built the mobile exhibit in his Brunswick County backyard shop. “This gives us the opportunity for a wildlife officer to produce a program that generally would take one to two days to set up.” Smith and Kevin Crabtree, a Wildlife Commission hunter safety specialist, provided the labor. Materials costs were underwritten by Alligator Adventure, a wetlands-themed nature park in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. The park’s owner, Jake Puglia, said the mobile exhibit is “something of the sort I’ve always wanted to be a part of.” The trailer’s rear doors open to reveal a TV and VCR with a small library of hunter and boater safety tapes. Also aboard is an array of personal flotation devices to demonstrate the advantages or disadvantages of different types. One of the exhibit’s subtler features is also its most personal. Affixed to three sides of the trailer are copies of a hunting license that belonged to Smith’s 16-year-old nephew, Justin Ray Davis, who died in a car crash in 2000. “He loved hunting more than anything,” Smith said. “This is sort of my tribute to him.” |
